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Stokes, who began the day on 74, said: ‘See ball, hit ball was the thinking. We had a really good score on the board in the morning. So I thought I’d keep going the way I did the night before. If I got out I thought we still had Mo and Broady to come. I normally say crikey when I get to 30. And I felt pressure after a lack of runs coming into the game. I wasn’t thinking of any landmarks, just hitting as many boundaries as I could as it was too hot to run.

‘I’ll probably never play like that ever again in my life. But at least I’ve done it once. It’s nice to hold records but I’d rather be involved in a winning team. Cooky sent out a message (about a declaration) saying “630 or do you want to go for 300?” But it didn’t really matter as I was trying to hit every ball for six at that stage.

Stokes and Jonny Bairstow shared partnership of 399 as England declared on 629 for 6

Stokes jumps for joy after passing 200 on day two before he was eventually out for 258

‘Cooky told me to play yourself in. But there were enough balls out there to throw my hands through and I didn’t want to nudge my way to 100. I just tried to get there as quick as I could.’

On Bairstow’s contribution, Stokes said: ‘When you get someone down the other end trying to hit every ball for four or six, it can be quite hard to rein it in and not start doing it yourself.

‘But the way he kept going was amazing. I gave him time to enjoy his hundred before telling him how proud I was of him.’

After his heroics with the bat, Stokes then struck with the ball as England had South Africa 141 for two

Bairstow himself said: ‘It was a pleasure to be at the other end. It was an exhibition of strokeplay. To witness that today was extremely special and something a lot of people will never forget. We just clicked and supported each other all the way through.’

England declared on 629 for six and South Africa, who have not lost to England in Cape Town since 1957, finished the day on 141 for two — a deficit of 488 but with their two best batsman AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla at the crease.